There’s nothing quite as homely and comforting as an afternoon spent in the kitchen with sugary treats. Cakes are always high on our agenda, but save a thought for the humble biscuit. Biscuits get a bad rap, we think – often branded as ‘boring’ thanks to their uninspiring shop-bought cousins – but homemade biscuits are something else entirely. You can make them as simple or as complex as you like, and incorporate a wealth of exciting flavours too.

We’ve pulled together a few of our very favourite recipes – from classic ginger snaps to gorgeous bagel-shaped Algerian twabaa – courtesy of our esteemed chefs and food bloggers. Get your oven preheating and read on!

1. Ginger snap biscuits

Josh Eggleton’s recipe is everything you want in a ginger snap – simple to make, with no unnecessary ingredients, crunchy and delicious. Josh crumbs his butter, flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger, then adds his wet ingredients to make his biscuit dough. At this point, flour your surface, roll your dough out to around 5mm thick and cut into desired shapes (you should get about sixty biscuits). Bake on non-stick parchment at 180°C for around seven minutes.

2. Chocolate and hazelnut biscotti

Though they’re traditionally made with almonds, biscotti are incredibly versatile, and can be made with a wide variety of nuts, seeds, dried fruits and more. Urvashi Roe uses hazelnuts in her recipe, and combines that with chocolate for a particularly decadent treat. She chops through her nuts, whisks her egg whites and sugar until they’re light and fluffy, then mixes in the rest of her ingredients to make a dough. Then it’s just the shaping and baking, but beware – biscotti dough is very sticky, so take off your rings before you start!

3. Algerian lemon and olive oil cookies (twabaa)

Rosa Mayland’s elegant lemon and olive oil cookies could easily be mistaken for bagels if you just saw the picture. Although they look and sound very different, the method isn’t so far from biscotti, although you need to pay a little more attention to the dough as you make it. Rosa mixes her dry ingredients and whisks her eggs and sugar until they’re thick and fluffy, gradually adding lemon zest, olive oil and vanilla, before carefully folding in her dry ingredients. From there she shapes the dough into balls, and pokes a hole in each with a greased wooden spoon handle – this allows the heat to penetrate more evenly – and bakes for fifteen minutes at 180°C until they’re lightly golden.

4. Hazelnut biscuits

Dominic Chapman’s family have run the historic Castle Hotel in Taunton for over 60 years, so they know a thing or two about good biscuits. These delightfully earthy hazelnut biscuits are fantastic as an accompaniment to creamy desserts, and really simple to make. Dominic creams his butter and sugar first, and then mixes in his dry ingredients and orange zest, finally adding enough egg to bind the mixture. After that, he rolls the dough thin, cuts out his biscuits and bakes them at 170°C until light golden brown, finishing with a sprinkling of caster sugar.

5. Carrot cake shortbread biscuits

A good bit of carrot cake is so much more than the sum of its parts. Carrots are fantastic for cakes thanks to their moisture, but that’s exactly what you don’t want when making biscuits. Izy Hossack’s clever recipe grates and squeezes the excess moisture from the carrots, and uses cornflour and butter to create a shortbread biscuit. After baking her biscuits at 160°C until golden, Izy allows them to cool before filling with a rich coconut cream cheese filling. Absolutely delicious.

6. Hot chocolate biscuits

We all love a chocolate biscuit, but there’s more to Vivek Singh’s recipe than meets the eye. Vivek uses plenty of black pepper and cayenne pepper to really bring the heat, and elevates the rich cocoa powder with lots of spice. Vivek creams his butter and sugars, then beats in his egg white until smooth, finishing his dough by beating in all his dry ingredients. Rather than rolling out, Vivek prefers to roll his dough into two logs and chill them until firm, slicing his biscuits at 2-3mm thickness, before baking and finishing with a drizzle of melted white chocolate.

7. Peanut butter Jammie Dodgers

Peanut butter and jam is a quintessentially American treat, but there’s no reason why it can’t be enjoyed on this side of the pond too! Kate Doran creams her butter and smooth peanut butter together first, before beating in her sugar and adding the rest of her ingredients to make her biscuit dough. This does make a crumbly dough so a bit of care is needed when rolling out, but once you’ve got them baking in the oven, you should be all clear. Let them cool before adding a dollop of your favourite jam in the middle and sandwiching them together.

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